Hike #1399; Six Mile Run to Bound Brook

Hike #1399: 3/17/21 Six Mile Run to Bound Brook with Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Jennifer Berndt, Brittany Audrey, and Shayna Michaels.

This next one would be the next night hike, this time between Six Mile Run and Bound Brook.

It's not that often that I put themes into the night hikes, but since I had done the last one to Bound Brook involving the Delaware and Raritan Canal form the east, I decided this time I would do something similar only from the west.
Unfortunately, my newer style Android phone with the great camera that I had gotten from my brother had broken at work during the course of the week. The screen was done for unfortunately and I couldn't use it.
Fortunately though, I still had the Oukitel phone that Russ and Ewa Nelson had given me as a gift the year prior to use as a backup, and it was also super strong battery power, so I had that hooked up pretty much right away and began using it.
It had a camera on it not nearly as good as the one on the previous one I'd gotten from my brother, but it would do the job for the time being.

After meeting the group in Bound Brook at the Shop Rite, we shuttled with my van to the start point at North Brunswick area off of Rt 27 where we could start doing the hike.
We cut from the parking lot where we parked across open ball fiends and such to hit the trail in Six Mile Run.
This was set aside as a reservoir site similar to the other sites set aside in the Water Bond Act of 1958, and the state used to refer to it as "Six Mile Run Reservoir Site", but the reservoir never happened. It's not likely to ever happen.
When I first started hiking this property back around 2005, there was only one loop trail out near the far western end, but now the trail passed all the way through the property and out to Rt 27. I'd walked it a few times, and it is a really great route through woods and fields.

We continued through the woods and crossed over the Six Mile Run on the old farm bridge out the the middle of nowhere stretch when it came near to a house.

We eventually came to the crossing of South Middlebush Road.
There, after crossing, we went off to the left to check out the abandoned house that has been sitting there for years.
I had first explored it with Jillane many years ago, and then did some group hikes where we passed through.
At this point, people have written their manifestos on the walls of the place. Quite a lot different than it once was.
It's really sad because this entire farm was once really beautiful, and it would make a great home, but it just goes further down the tubes every year.
When we got done at the building, we continued on along the trail on the southwest side of the Six Mile Run. The last time I had done this area I think we stayed on the north side.

There are a whole lot of bridges and board walk structures through this whole section and I think there are more improvements every time I'm out there.
The trail officially turns to the south at some point and then goes out to Jaques Lane, but I never do that.
The original trail used to stay along the bank of Six Mile Run right out to Canal Road, and it is still there and quite clear, they just don't encourage anyone to use it because of some sort of liability. It's either because of the slopes or because they don't want anyone out on Canal Road because it is so narrow and dangerous.
We went that way anyway, then walked Canal Road out through Blackwell Mills, past the old building there, and then turned to the left over Blackwell Mills Road to reach the canal towpath.

This is a really pleasant stretch with no accesses on it until the next road crossing, Amwell Road a few miles up to the north.

It was dark by the time we got to that point, but really pleasant.
We continued past the Colonial Park footbridge, and passed the next access point at the Manville Causeway.
Beyond there, the next point was the Zaraphath/Pillar of Fire religious property.
We passed by the lock and then the confluence of the Raritan and Millstone Rivers with the dam to the left. This spot always looks eerie and beautiful at night.
We continued under Rt 287 where there is a spillway, and over another spillway beyond. I am not a fan of how these were done, because they were still authentic stone style when I first hiked it, and they made it kind of inaccurate to what they used to look like years ago in more recent years.

Soon, we passed the South Bound Brook lock, and not long after that we reached the Queen Bridge where we turned from the canal towpath into Bound Brook.
As I recall, just like last time, we turned left along the old road parallel with the former Reading Railroad tracks into the rail yard, crossed the double tracks of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad, and then continued up onto the flood retention berm parallel with West Main Street.
When we went through the rail yard, it was kind of funny that Uncle Soup and Brittany both went up and climbed on the rail cars instead of staying down on the base. I stayed off of them, but it was funny to watch.
The retention berm turns from parallel with the former Reading and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and heads north along the east side of the Middle Brook.
We climbed down from it at the flood gates and crossed the former Central Railroad of New Jersey, now NJ Transit, and then climbed up the berm on the other side again.

We continued from there out along the berm, and came out behind the bank off of Rt 28 and finished at the Shop Rite.

This is just a really great route I've enjoyed doing in the past and can easily see myself doing again in the future, if I can ever get to doing night hikes again.